Family Sues After Daughter Dies in Pancake Eating Contest

The family of a 20-year-old woman who choked to death during a pancake-eating contest filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut university she was attending in hopes of raising “awareness of the preventable dangers associated with amateur eating competitions.”

Caitlin Nelson, who was participating in Sacred Heart University’s Greek Week celebration on March 30, 2017, began to shake uncontrollably and fell to the floor after eating multiple pancakes in a short period of time. The family’s lawsuit claims officers found a mass of pancake paste “like concrete” in Nelson’s airway.